People have been wondering: has the Middle East section of the Guardian been rented out to the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood? I mean, the romanticization of the UnFree Syrian Army gangs is even worse than in Saudi media.

"There has never been gender equality so well defined as there was when Palestinian resistance was founded upon increasing British and Zionist colonialism, which began more than 8 decades back. Palestinian women and men fought valiantly side by side, without being subjected to misogynic retorts by society. Yet years later, when capitalism and NGO investment in an illusion of a Palestinian state destroyed the golden relation both genders lived by, the integral role of Palestinian women in resistance that was recorded up until the first Intifada in 1987 had drastically died down."

"It shows that by volume of tweets, Twitter in the Middle East is dominated by the Gulf oil states, not by the mostly more populous countries of the Arab Spring. The giants of tweeting are Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, with the United Arab Emirates, and even Qatar (citizen population 250,000) also significant. Of the Arab Spring societies that have seen social unrest and either changes at the top or attempted changes at the top, only Bahrain (a Gulf oil state) and Egypt (the largest Arab state by far) are in the same league with some of the tiny Gulf states."" (thanks Nikolai)

"Over the past decade, US experts have strenuously warned about the ominous possibility of other nations, rogue states, or even terrorist groups attacking US infrastructure through the Internet. As it happens, however, it is the United States that has developed malicious software in secrecy and launched it against another country -- in this case, Iran."

"Arab citizens are entitled to equal rights in Israel but, like minorities in many countries, many experience discrimination." This is like saying: women in Saudi Arabia are not equal to men--like other countries of the world. (thanks James)

"Robert Satloff, executive director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.Michael Wahid Hanna, a Middle East expert and a fellow at the Century FoundationYisrael Hasson, an Israeli lawmaker and former deputy chief of Israel's internal security agencyBenjamin Ben-Eliezer, an Israeli lawmaker and former defense minister."I mean, who can best speak for Egyptian public opinion and the revolutionary sentiments than those people? Who? Don't get me wrong. I am not complaining. Are you kidding me? I love it when Zionists delude themselves. I can see Zionist when Israel begins to sink: they will say, Israel is not sinking. It merely is being submerged in water.

""The world should remember that the Church of the Nativity, holy to Christians, had been defiled in the past by Palestinian terrorists," the statement noted, referring to the seizure of the site by gunmen in 2002." Defiled how? Because Palestinians sought shelter there in order not to be shot like pigeons by Israeli terrorists? And when Netanyahu prays at the Wailing Wall, does he not defile it? And the Zionist occupation of Palestine did not defile a land that many consider "holy"? And does this very post not defiled by the name of Netanyahu in it? And is our discourse on the Middle East not defiled by the very invocation of Zionist terms? And is my childhood not defiled by the Israeli invasions and massacres?

I have argued all along that the Syrian National Council is but a front for the religious fanatics of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood. Only recently have Western media begun to note the influence of the Ikhwan: perhaps because several leaders of the council resigned in protest against Ikhwan domination. So the Syrian National Council issues a daily statement that is placed on its official page and on its FB page. Here is the one from today:

The problem, according to the reader who shared with me, the statement was removed after some readers protested. I need someone to translate the passage for me: it manages to insult Iranians, Shi`ites, and Jews in the same sentence. It reminds me of the language of Saddam Husayn's mukhabarat chief, Fadil Al-Barrak.

PS The Friday of protest in Syria was named yesterday "We are confident in God's victory". Secular my potato. Neither the regime nor the exile opposition are secular, of course. They use religion to their own ends.

The Syrian people have shown real wisdom in assessing the Syrian regimes. For years, the Syrian people spoke about the Makhluf and never trusted the anti-corruption promises of the Hafidh and then of Bashshar. Syrians used to have a code name for Rami Makhluf when they talked on the phone. By the way, no one mentioned Rami Makhluf's business connections in the Gulf. The entire relationship between Asad regime and GCC countries is never broached in the Western press: not only Qatar but also Saudi Arabi. Al-Walid bin Talal has been very close to Bashshar and the opening of the Four Seasons Hotel in Damascus is only one of the many investments of Al-Walid.

"What is most surprising about the whole affair is that anyone would be surprised at all. Israeli arms―whether government sanctioned or black market, from multinational arms corporations or individual dealers and mercenaries―can be found in nearly every locale where human rights are violated. Anyone paying attention to Israeli arms production and exports over the last few decades would not be surprised by the latest revelations about Rwanda. " (thanks Hussam)

"During the interview, Lieutenant General Boykin warned listeners that every serious Muslim was determined to enshrine Sharia law wherever they lived and that they were making great progress in establishing it in America. This prompted one of the co-hosts to ask Lieutenant General Boykin about Dearborn, Michigan which he claimed was "almost one hundred percent Muslim and operating under Sharia law now." Lieutenant General Boykin agreed: "If you walk down the streets, you would think you were in Beirut or Damascus." You can bet the farm and the car that Boykin has never been to Beirut or to Damascus. (thanks Basim)

"But there is pessimism in some quarters that the report’s recommendations will be implemented. The document has been criticized as “toothless” by a prominent Palestinian human rights activist. “Children in Military Custody” was funded and backed by the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and written by anad hocgroup including a former attorney general, a former court of appeal judge and several prominent attorneys known as QCs. The delegation visited Palestine in September and met with Palestinian, Israeli and international nongovernmental organizations, British diplomats and a wide range of Israeli government and military officials." (thanks Asa)

Nadia sent me this: ""In Spain, Italy, Greece and Russia, advertisements by people peddling organs — as well as hair, sperm and breast milk — have turned up on the Internet, with asking prices for lungs as high as $250,000. In late May, the Israeli police detained 10 members of an international crime ring suspected of organ trafficking in Europe, European Union law enforcement officials said. The officials said the suspects had targeted impoverished people in Moldova, Kazakhstan, Russia, Ukraine and Belarus."

What is up with Sweden really?? I used to like this country and just recently discovered that it sucks. It wants to extradite Assange to the US if he is extradited to Sweden (its justice system is apparently really opaque); it sold arms to Saudi Arabia, and unlike Denmark which is tirelessly advocating for AlKhawaja to be released, Sweden has been mute about severely tortured Bahraini-Swedish citizen Mohammad Habib AlMuqdad who has received a life sentence for calling for the overthrow of the regime."

From Angry Arab chief Bahrain correspondent: "Read this ridiculous statement about the BBC on Bahrain. I did not read the report but I'm assuming that they believe that their coverage on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is impartial as is their coverage on Syria. The BBC is a joke. I'm not sure what Frank Gardner is talking about - they emphasized sect when it came in Bahrain from the beginning, letting to overshadow all other divisions in Bahraini society, and completely ignored sect when it came to Syria.

On a separate note, I'm sick and tired of supporters of the Syrian regime defend the Bahraini uprising. We don't need their support, and where were they when Bashar AlAsad supported the Saudi invasion of Bahrain?? "

RN: The restrictions on [journalists] movements are very severe. It is extremely dangerous to move around anywhere in Iraq, but we do. We all haveIraqi staff who get around, andwe go on trips arranged by the U.S. State Departmentas frequently as we can."" (thanks Joseph)

"They say the arrests have focused on two groups: secular activists..." I can confirm this. I have been hearing this from Syrians from early on in the uprising: that the Syrian regime went out of its way to target secular and leftist leaders and cadres thus depriving the internal uprising from its potentially key effective leaders. I know that leaders and cadres of the Communist Action Party were arrested early on, and some were killed by the regime.

PS The rest of the article in the Times is not very reliable, typically relying on rumors and unsubstantiated claims. But what do you expect: it is a Syria story, damn it. It talks about regime inciting sectarian tensions in jails but without explaining how. I mean, like the Ikhwan folks go to jail secular, and then due to sectarian incitement by the regime they suddenly become sectarian? How dumb are those articles in the Times these days.

Look how disgustingly bigoted and politically biased the coverage of the New York Times is about the wife of Muhammad Mursi. They found this person (a convenient native who is willing to say what the White Man correspondent wants to say) to say this: "Noran Noaman, 21, an engineering student, said Ms. Mahmoud embarrassed her. “If you travel to New York or wherever, people would make fun of you and say: ‘Your first lady wears the abaya, hahaha,’ ” she said. “Previous first ladies used to be elegant.”" Oh, really. The multiple wives of the various oil and gas kings and princes have been mostly invisible for decades and that has never bothered the US or the media. How come this will be a problem? Also, it was very clear during the campaign (even from liberal candidates) that the model represented by Jihan Sadat or Susanne Mubarak was not a model favored by Egyptians--and not necessarily due to sexism mind you--it was more due to...corruption. The same thing in Jordan: many of the complaints about Queen Youtube Rania is about the corruption of her family and her desperate attempt to impress and please the White Man--very much like Jihan Sadat. Susanne Mubarak treated the Egyptian museum as her own personal closet.

Look at this Mossad-planted "story" on Aljazeera.net. It basically absolves Israel from a clear responsibility for the assassination of a Hamas operative in Damascus. The article cites "Israeli security experts" as if those experts ever admit Israeli responsibility for assassinations, and as if the Israeli military sponsor allows such admissions. This is yet another evidence that the third invisible party to the Saudi-Qatari alliance is none other than Israel. (thanks Mohammad)

Some supporters of the Syrian opposition asked me yesterday about the reason for posting the picture of a man being tossed out of the window given my reluctance to post videos and pictures of the opposition. Answer: simple. I don't trust those videos or pictures from either side but sometimes I do. And there is a more important reason: I cover what is not being covered. Crimes of the regime (real and not real--in the sense that the exile Syrian opposition and its regional and international sponsors are the biggest fabricators and liars in the Syria story by far) are being covered widely everywhere so it is important that I provide some coverage of the crimes of the UnFree Syrian Army gangs as well.

What supporters of the exile Syrian opposition don't know is that the US (and Israel behind it) does not want a regime change in Syria. This is the formula that whenever I explain, supporters of the Syrian regime on FB and Twitter makes them upset: there is an undeclared peace treaty between Israel and the Syrian regime since 1974. The regime has strictly adhered to that treaty which has kept the border with Israel quiet and peaceful. This is why the US and Israel wish to maintain that treaty by preserving the regime--with Bashshar (preferably weakened by them) or without him. The US does not want a dissolution of the regime or the military-intelligence apparatus in Syria.

Thursday, June 28, 2012

A man belonging to the Syrian militant Salafiist, Jama`at An-Nur, is throwing another guy that he accuses of collaboration with the regime out of the window. (As-Safir). When asked about that, Human Rights Watch issued a tough statement calling on the Syrian government to not allow Syrians who are accused of supporting the regime to be thrown out of window.

"A U.S. company that provides information on investments has taken Caterpillar off three of its environmentally and socially responsible investment indexes, citing controversy over the Israeli military using its bulldozers in Palestinian territories as one of the reasons.

MSCI Inc. said Caterpillar was downgraded earlier this year because of several concerns, including a January labor dispute in Canada, environmental issues, employee safety and "an ongoing controversy associated with use of the company’s equipment in the occupied Palestinian territories."

The dropped environmental and social rating led Caterpillar to be removed from several of its investment lists.

Pro-Palestinian activists who have urged boycotts cheered the move. Since the downgrade, theTIAA-CREF financial services firm divested itself of $72 million in Caterpillar stock, dwarfing earlier divestments by smaller groups, according to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

TIAA-CREF told the agency that it had not been moved by activist pressure, but that the decision was tied directly to its "social screen vendor," MSCI."

So my sources tell me that Mr. Nordland (who is doing a lousy job covering Lebanon and Syria as of late) had worked for Newsweek and was an expert on "terrorist" links before becoming a roving correspondent for the Times. Your typical Times correspondent without language and culture and region training. Good luck.

""Even today, I'm credited with some major influence in Egypt, for example," he says." Let us see, Mr. Sharp. The only one crediting you are films and books that you yourself fund. So basically you are crediting yourself and some idiots in the Western press believe your claims. Also, I can't dispute that Mr. Sharp is really huge with the Free Syrian Army gangs. The armed thugs there really idolize him and do read him when not engaged in killings and kidnappings.

Let us face it: since 1974, the Syrian regime has for all intents and purposes observed an undeclared peace treaty with the Israeli enemy. With the fall of the regime, that agreements collapses. Of course, the exile Syrian opposition opt for an even more humiliating agreement with the Israeli enemy.

No Arab or Muslim cause can be championed and supported by Western governments and media if that cause is not blessed and endorsed by the Zionists. There is no exception to this rule. From the struggle against communists in Afghanistan, to the Sudan war, to the Iraq war, and now to the Syrian war.

"In the first investigation of its kind, a team of nine senior legal figures examined how Palestinians as young as 12 were treated when arrested. Their shocking report Children in Military Custody details claims that youngsters are dragged from their beds in the middle of the night, have their wrists bound behind their backs, and are blindfolded and made to kneel or lie face down in military vehicles. Children from the West Bank are held in conditions that could amount to torture, such as solitary confinement, with little or no access to their parents. They can be forced to stay awake before being verbally as well as physically abused and coerced into signing confessions they cannot read." (thanks Ali)

"Onthebasissolelyoflegaldifferentials,wehaveconcludedthatIsraelisinbreachof articles 2 (discrimination), 3 (child’s best interests), 37(b) (premature resort to detention), (c) (non-separation from adults), (d) (prompt access to lawyers), and 40 (use of shackles) of theUNCRC.Transportation of child prisoners into Israel is in breach of article 76 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.Failure to translate Military Order 1676 from Hebrewis a violation of article 65 of the same convention.

If the manner of arrest and detention is to any significant extent that which was described to us by the UN, Israeli and Palestinian NGOs, former Israeli soldiers and Palestinian children,Israel will also be in breach of the prohibition on cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment in article 37(a) of the UNCRC.

With regard to what is set out in paragraph 101 of our report, we record our view that to hold children routinely and for substantial periods in solitary confinement would, if it occurred, be capable of amounting to torture in breach not only of article 37(a) but also of other well-known international instruments.’ (thanks Shih-Yu)

Since I came to the US in 1983, I never ever saw Western journalists acting as propagandists on behalf of a Middle East cause--other than for Israel, of course--as I see them now on behalf of the Free Syrian Army. You see respected journalists, like Brian Whitaker and many others on Twitter, acting not as analysts or commentators anymore but as mere propagandists for the UnFree Syrian Army and the Syrian National Council. What is funny is that some of those folks mocked and criticized those Western journalists who had championed the cause of the Iraqi National Council. I guess it was personal for those people: they don't like Chalabi while they found people they like in the Syrian exile opposition?

It is amazing. Western governments/media are more impressed by war crimes, kidnappings, extortion, and sectarian killings by gangs of the UnFree Syrian Army than they are by the peaceful protests of Bahrain. What I like about Western standards is that they often have the audacity of faulting Bahraini struggle because one kid threw a rock here or another hit a cop there.

Of course, the UnFree Syrian Army and the Syrian National Council are mere stooges of Saudi Arabia and Qatar. They would do what they are told, faithfully. The UnFree Syrian Army is now a replica of the South Lebanon Army, and yes I am implying that there is now a covert Israeli connection (the Syrian Ikhwans received Israeli arms in the late 1970s and early 1980s through the Phalanges and Jordan--King Husayn admitted his role later in the 1980s). It is quite telling that on sites loyal to SNC and UnFree Syrian Army gangs there is an attempt to blame the regime for a clear Mossad assassination in Damascus against a Hamas military official. UnFree Syrian Army gangs work by fee now, by their own admission.

PS Before I get the boring responses from some readers, i say: yes, the Syrian regime does have lousy credentials on the subject of struggle against Israel and yes, I do believe it has committed crimes against the Palestinian people and yes I do call for its overthrow.

Somebody should do a study to compare and contrast the language of Human Rights Watch on Syria versus its language on Bahrain. Very revealing. Just compare their language on Israel and you can see the determinants of the organization.

There is no question that there is an irony about Syria: the party that lies the most, the UnFree Syrian Army, is yet the most cited sources for Western and Arab (read Saudi and Qatari-funded) media. The lie by the UnFree Syrian Army yesterday about their non-responsibility for the attack on Al-Kkhbariyyah is only the latest big flat out lie by them. Basically, the propaganda press about the UnFree Syrian Army is such that they can get away with any war crime and any massacre without any criticisms. Such privilege has only been awarded before to Zionist gangs and to Afghan Mujahdin in the 1980s.

Haisam sent me this: "It looks like the NY Times took out this entire sectionof their story. But if I search for the relevant string on google is shows it as being cached I guess it was too damning for FSA."

""More than a third of customers at Sparkasse bank in Chemnitz opted for the picture of a bronze bust of the bearded 19th century German-born philosopher, bank spokesman Roger Wirtz said." "The east has witnessed a wave of nostalgia in recent years for aspects of the old East Germany, or DDR, where citizens had few freedoms but were guaranteed jobs and social welfare. The trend is not limited to the region. "We've even received inquiries from clients in western German states asking whether they could open a local account with us to get a card bearing Marx's features," Sparkasse's Wirtz told Reuters. A 2008 survey found 52 percent of eastern Germans believed the free market economy was "unsuitable" and 43 percent said they wanted socialism back."" Damn. I want one. Do they offer one for Bakunin too? (thanks Nikolai)

Very funny. Very funny. Would Mr. democracy and civil society Ghalyun have ever dared to carry gun in a picture with Palestinian armed men? What would have been the reaction of his employers in France and what would have been said about him in Western media which now are glamorizing even his championing of armed gangs in Syria? Can you imagine the reaction of an Arab professor posed with guns among Palestinians? Edward Said was widely and universally condemned in the West for carrying a pebble on the border with occupied Palestine.

I posted yesterday a picture of Hasan Al-Banna kissing the hand of King `Abdul-`Aziz. Some Egyptians doubted that the man in the picture is Al-Banna. I tend to agree with that assessment in the absence of confirmation. The picture has been posted on Saudi news and blog sites.

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

"On 19 June 2012,dueto theirdeteriorating health,women human rights defenders Basma Al-Keumy, lawyer, and Basma Al-Rajehy, writer and TV broadcaster, ended their hunger strike aimed at their administrative detention which continued until 24 June 2012 and the lack of access to their families and lawyers. Both women were arrested on 11 June 2012 along with approximately 20 other protestors when security forces and anti-riot police broke up a three-day protest held in front of the General Police Headquarters in the capital of Muscat. The protestors demands included, respect for human rights and the release of all detained human rights defenders in Oman. Administrative detention, which is often used by the security forces in Oman, is a procedure under which detainees are held without charge or trial. It violates the detainees' rights to a fair trial, guaranteed by article 10 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which is considered to be part of the international customary law. Basma Al-Keumy and Basma Al-Rajehy are still not given proper access to their families and lawyers. According to some reports received, Basma Al-Keumy experiences severe asthma attacks, while Basma Al-Rajehy is vomiting blood. Both defenders are suffering from overallfatigueand they have no access to medical care in the prison. Al-Keumy and Al-Rajehy are amongst the most recognizable human rights defenders who led the protests that have swept Oman in February 2011. Al-Keumy was previously detained in 2011 and released without any charges levied against her. Al-Rajehy was kidnapped and tortured also in 2011. "

Nu`man sent me this: "" The Muslim Brotherhood has long been portrayed as an extremist throwback. It is in reality an authentic mass movement, with broad social support and conservative and more progressive trends within it. Its leaders are mostly middle-class professionals, but its activists are often treated with snobbish disdain by liberal elites – as evidenced by contemptuous reactions on the web to the appearance of Morsi's wife, Naglaa Ali."

Note that he doesn't mention Qatar's funding of the Ikhwan and that the Ikhwan is part of the counter-revolution."

Layth from Saudi Arabia sent me this: "Hi Asa'ad i dont know whats happening here but there is something BIG coming maybe when you read this later its uselessso for the past hour the military called for all national Gard members including people on vacations to work my friend called me at the base and said i dont know whats happening they didn't say any thing but to come fast, and he also said that the high ranking officers are acting fishy ,its hard to know why because maybe there not hiding something and just being stupid as they are . and people are taking about a an attack on Syria , and even more people are talking about king abdullah is in intensive care and he is dying or already dead and thats why the national Gard have been called to head to work ."

Semir sent me this: "Nevertheless another link about the human values in Belgian society:

14 police officers stand trial today in a case of abuse of homeless people who sleep in the railway station.

“Some homeless people were mistreated and humiliated by the police. Police officer Christelle L. was offered an illegal homeless immigrant for her birthday. The man has been taken violently to a small police office under the railway station. There he was beaten with an electrical cable while his hands were cuffed on his back and his head blocked in a closet. Afterwards the Algerian man was thrown on the floor and 1 of the police officers started jumping on him as if he were a trampoline.”

“Some (female) officers like Audrey N. enjoyed it to kick the homeless in the testicles during interventions.”

“1 police officer became angry with a 12 year old gypsy girl and cut of her long hair and threw it in a toilet-bucket in front of her eyes”".

These abuses went on since 2006 for several months, the officers told they did this because they were frustrated with the Belgian justice system, they were angry because of the fact that when they arrest people for the crimes they committed, those people are being released some days later by justice and they reappear in the railway station.

Sultan reports to me that Nicholas Kristoff--who epitomizes the bankruptcy of American liberalism--has been enthusiastically tweeting about his discovery that Iranians have sex and listen to music. Apparently, Kristoff is besides himself and is quite jubilant about his discovery which he plans to register at the nearest patent office.

"Christian minorities are facing a growing threat and thousands are being forced to flee their homes as they face harassment and discrimination from opposition radical Islamist factions. At least 9,000 Christians from the western Syrian city of Qusayr were forced to seek refuge after an ultimatum from a local military chief from the armed opposition, the Vatican’s Fides news agency said. Earlier, a Christian man was shot dead by a sniper in Qusayr, which neighbors the city of Homs. Some reports have even suggested that a number of mosques in the city have announced that"Christians must leave Qusayr within six days." Two Catholic priests who fled the city confirmed to the news agency that they heard the ultimatum repeated from the minarets"with their own ears." Attempts to evacuate Christians from the city of Homs over the past two weeks have also been unsuccessful, and a priest in the city said the rebels appeared to want to keep the civilians inside to use them as bargaining chips. Thousands of Christians have fled certain areas of Homs that fell into rebel hands in February. Meanwhile, US intelligence operatives and diplomats continue to step up their contacts with Syrian rebels to help organize their growing military operations against President Bashar al-Assad's forces." (thanks Raed)

"For the past five years, all entrances to Nahr al-Bared have remained encircled by the Lebanese army. It has remained that way since the military's 2007 campaign - ostensibly against Fatah al-Islam members - devastated the camp, turning it into a closed military zone. In addition to the checkpoints, walls and barbed wire, the army commandeered all the homes surrounding the periphery of the camp, in addition to those homes straddling the border between the old and new sections of the camp. Those wishing to visit friends in the camp must first obtain permission from the army (and those who are US citizens must wait for the army to clear visits with the US embassy). Palestinians from other camps, including those who lived in Nahr al-Bared prior to the army's bombardment, are also prevented from visiting the camp. Thus, people in other camps cannot visit their relatives in Nahr al-Bared without prior permission from the military."

"A notoriously racist rabbi who once called on Israel to slaughter a million Palestinian civilians has been appointed to head a supervisory committee for Magen David Adom (MDA) – Israel’s equivalent of the Red Cross and Red Crescent."

""Turkish raki, Greek and Cypriot ouzo are variations on a theme with Lebanese and Israeli arak. It is also not dissimilar to French Pastis and Pernod, and the Italian liqueur Sambucca. The word arak means “sweat.” The drops of condensed alcohol are said represent perspiration! The world’s finest arak comes from Lebanon. There, they treat their finest araks with total reverence. Arak is known there as “lion’s milk.”"" (thanks Layali)

From Angry Arab's chief Bahrain correspondent: "FYI: Nabeel Rajab has been released but charges against him haven't been dropped. Albuflasa has been released. Zainab Alkhawaja has been shot in the leg with a tear gas canister. A one year old died from excessive tear gas inhalation but I can't confirm."

“The Syrian Rebellion” is an elegant and edifying book, written on the fly, by an observer who retains an almost loving intimacy with his subject.

Words fail me. The template is so powerful and, for many, convincing. There is little to comment on here, but this "sympathy" an "intimacy" business merits a treatment at another time, especially when compared to the portrayals of writers who oppose US foreign policy or the policies of its allies. Their love, intimacy, and sympathy is simply misplaced, not worth mentioning, and almost consistently not brought up."

""We strongly condemn the attack against Al-Ikhbariya," said CPJ Deputy Director Robert Mahoney. "Journalists covering conflict are civilians, and attacks against them and their offices constitute a serious violation of international humanitarian law. We call on all parties in Syria to respect the status of journalists and ensure their safety."" Look at the language used? Look how it called on "all parties". Whenever armed gangs belonging to the UnFree Syrian Army commits a massacre, you see Western official and media language calling on "both sides" to refrain from committing crimes. But when the crime is committed by the Syrian regime, there is a clear and specific language of condemnation. In Arabic we call that تجهيل الفاعل (or "obscuring the doer, or rendering him unknown).

Flash. Yesterday, Bashshar Al-Asad remembered the poor of Syria. The poor of Syria were very touched by this socialist gesture and said that they forgot their poverty after hearing the mere mention by Bashshar.

If any writer in the West wrote those words he/she would have been accused of peddling propaganda for the Syrian regime: "Those difficulties were illustrated Wednesday in findings by a panel from the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, which is investigating rights violations in Syria. The panel said it was unable to determine conclusively who was responsible for the May 25 massacre of 108 civilians in the western region of Houla, but “considers that forces loyal to the government may have been responsible for many of the deaths.”"

"The commission said it had also received many reports of summary executions by antigovernment rebels, foreign fighters and people suspected of being informers or collaborators. A Free Syrian Army soldier told the panel that captured soldiers from the Alawite sect, from which President Assad draws strong support, are usually executed immediately, while soldiers from other sects are given the option of joining the opposition." Where are those journalists and idiots who insisted for months that the armed groups are secular and liberal and feminists? Where have they gone?

"While the investigators accused government forces of committing violations on “an alarming scale” in recent months, they also found that both sides had carried out summary executions." Wait: given the coverage of the Times which portrays the gangs of the UnFree Syrian Army in the most romantic and heroic cast possible, does that mean that some summary executions are praiseworthy and others are blameworthy? And given the coverage of the Times and other Western media, will any Western newspaper ever carry this headline: "Free Syrian Army carry out summary execution" or will that be buried--as in UN and Western human rights organizations reports--in one phrase in a 60 page report against regime crimes?

Wait: I thought that anybody who called for healthy skepticism about the Hula massacre and who called for skepticism regarding the claims of the fabrication industry of the UnFree Syrian Army is stooge for Asad regime, and yet here the UN is presenting an account that runs counter to the decisive and clear and unequivocal conclusion of the New York Times on day one of the massacre: "Those difficulties also were illustrated Wednesday in findings by a panel from the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, which is investigating rights violations in Syria. The panel said it was unable to determine conclusively who was responsible for the May 25 massacre of 108 civilians in the western region of Houla, but “considers that forces loyal to the government may have been responsible for many of the deaths.” So if the regime is responsible for many of the deaths, does that mean that the rest who are killed by the gangs of the UnFree Syrian Army should be forgotten because the killers are in this case allies of the Western political agenda?

"The conflicting accounts of who carried out the assault on the television station". What conflicting accounts? The station is loyal to the regime: logic prohibits the notion of conflicting accounts. And when the regime commits a massacre, as it has over the months (and the years prior during Hafidh's rule), the New York Times never allows for the notion of "conflicting account" and points fingers in one direction. Yet, when the massacre is committed by gangs of the UnFree Syrian Army, the New York Times covers up the massacre by introducing the notion of "conflicting accounts" to distance the killers from their crimes. I have never seen the New York Times working hard to cover up crimes and massacres since it covered the latest Israeli war crime and massacre. This tells me that the UnFree Syrian Army gangs are as valuable to Western Zionists as the Israeli terrorist army. Any links there? Of course, there are.

No crime and no massacre by the UnFree Syrian Army get blamed on the UnFree Syrian Army. They can get away with any war crime and massacre because they know that the Western media and Western human rights organizations will not blame them, or they will be criticized mildly in one line in 60-page report by the two major Zionist human rights organizations. No matter what they do, and even if the claims of the Free Syrian Army are so clearly lies, the Western media will manage to peddle those lies. Did any Western media organization comment on the kidnapping by the gangs of that army of innocent Lebanese pilgrims? Not one to my knowledge. Look at this line in a report by Rod Nordland--emerging quickly as one of the worst foreign correspondent of the New York Times: "Syria said Wednesday that rebels stormed a pro-government television station in a Damascus suburb, killing employees and blowing up the station in an audacious predawn assault, but rebels said the attackers were defectors from the elite Republican Guard, considered to be the most loyal core defenders of President Bashar al-Assad." So the massacre of employees of that channel is portrayed as a "brazen" and "audacious". If the regime troops raided a station that is opposed to the regime in Turkey or in Lebanon and massacred its employees, I can see the protests by Western governments and media and by the Committee to Protect Journalists. And of course, the New York Times never miss to report any blatant lie by the Free Syrian Army, including the lie that the regime bombs itself repeatedly.

Ahmet of Tunisia sent me this: "
Asad, this guy,who got memorably destroyed by Pankaj Mishra in that famous LRB review, never really disappoints; here, he simply writes an article that has no purpose, i mean no purpose, other than an urge he felt to suck up to Israel just for being invited to a conference there and for being personally host by Netanayhu ..Just read his vapid introduction to it: "Israel is the land of argument. Each June its president holds a conference in Jerusalem to which people flock from all over the world to argue. Every weekday the prime minister has meetings with his cabinet colleagues at which they argue. There is even a white board in his office on which the latest argument is recorded. He could not get up to greet my wife and me because his leg recently had an argument with a soccer ball. The old joke still applies: as soon as you bring together two Israelis, you have three arguments. And that is the other thing I love about Israel. It is also the land of jokes. The fact that Benjamin Netanyahu injured his leg in a soccer match with Jewish and Arab youths strikes even him as pretty funny"." What is amazing about Western Zionism is that even intelligent people like Fruguson sound so dumb when they vomit praise for Israel.

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

One stupid speech by an Iranian official warranted a whole article in the New York Times. I have no problem with that: although the official in question did distinguish between Jews and Zionists in the speech, the distinction is rendered irrelevant when his remarks seems to insult Jews qua Jews, especially with his remarks about Talmud. But here is my beef/tofu: Israeli officials make regular racist speeches against Arabs (and lately against blacks) and the New York Times would never in a million year devote a small article for that.

"Gunmen erected roadblocks, burned tires and fired into the air in downtown Beirut in the predawn hours of Tuesday, while in the suburb of Jounieh to the east, at least two land mines were found on the grounds of a hospital.

The roadblocks were manned by Shiites who apparently support President Bashar al-Assad of Syria and who were angry over the arrest of a Shiite man for firebombing and shooting into the offices of New TV, a Lebanon broadcaster that has been critical of the Syrian government." Notice that the headline and the narrative her insists on dragging the Syrian issue into it when it has absolutely nothing to do with foreign policy. The matter is about the appearance of Shaykh Ahmad Al-Asir on New TV and his expressions of sectarian incitement which apparently enraged a group of Shi`ites whose political affiliation is not even known (Minister of Interior stated that they were neither Amal nor Hizbullah, and the two movement denied any link with the thugs). But Rod Nordland's ignorance does not stop here: even when Karma Khayyat tells him that the issue is about sectarianism and not about Syria, he wants to make it about Syrian issue. And notice that Rod, who clearly has no knowledge of Lebanon or Arabic, insists that Al-Asir attacked Hizbullah and Amal when he is known for attacks on Shi`ites.

These sentences are never used in articles about the Middle East except in stories about "Zionist pioneers". Can you imagine a sentence like that ever used to describe Palestinian struggle? "Most activists stressed that Syrians were simply fighting for a better life." Yes, I am sure that Salafites and Ikhwan are fighting for a better life for women of Syria. I am sure.

"There has also been discord among the Syrians, with Mr. Abdullah, a Christian dentist from Hama, quitting his council post because, he said, the Muslim Brotherhood pushed nonmembers aside. “Their power is that all the money and all the humanitarian aid is in their hands, but we don’t know where it is coming from,” he said."

From Angry Arab chief Bahrain correspondent: "In the village of Sitra, villagers strapped small tape recorders on the village cats and let tapes with people chanting "down down hamad" play continuously. The police, always looking for someone to shoot, were confused at first because they had no idea where the chanting came from. True story straight from a friend from Sitra."

This sectarian (Sunni) cleric has been vomiting hate and agitation and lies for months now: it is clear that there is a central Hizbullah order to ignore him and to not respond to him. But this man with limited abilities and intelligence is unrelenting. New TV shamefully gave him the airwaves for 90 minutes the other day (which triggered the shameful attack on the station by a handful of thugs yesterday). New TV should not have put him on the air. His lies have been exposed more than once and his mission to trigger a sectarian war is now quite obvious. But among the things he said on New TV is that the Saudi embassy called him and invited him for a meeting and offered to send armored embassy cars to bring him to Beirut. Just like that.

"Oman's public prosecutor warned this month that he would take action against anyone making defamatory statements on social media, after protests where some activists used slogans that derided the ruler, Sultan Qaboos. He also declined to discuss the court case when asked by Reuters."

"Haredi woman gives birth during vow of silence, hides newborn under dress: Jerusalem resident gives birth alone at home, keeps umbilical cord intact and placenta hidden in a bag next to her bed, while refusing to tell anyone about the birth."

Akram sent me this: "According to Nahed Hattar (Arabic): Assigning a post in the new Syrian cabinet to a "coherent and genuine communist" (Qadri Jamil) means Al-Assad is determined to wipe out the "high profile corruption", the compradorists, and the neoliberals

Assigning another post to a the leader of the Syrian National Social Party, Ali Haidar, is a significant (conceived by the great leader (Al-Assad, not Haidar of course) step towards reconstructing the Syrian society on National (he means The great Syrian Nation) basis

""Israel can claim the title of most racist state in the developed world," Michael, who heads the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, said at the opening of an international conference of the Association for Israel Studies at Haifa University.(...)

"From kindergarten to old age we feed our children hatred, suspicion and disgust toward the stranger and the other, and especially toward the Arabs," he said." Of course, the racism of the speaker is revealed when he said "most racist in the developed world", thus giving Israel a status above the neighbors. (thanks "Ibn Rushd")

"According to Fergie’s former personal assistant, Dr Allan Starkie, she gave Nayef the nickname ‘Rubber Lips’ after he planted a kiss on her lips over a candlelit dinner — and subsequently paid £50,000 into her account." (thanks Layth)

Mohannad sent me this from Damascus: "check this hilarious story in sky news which was then quoted at al-hayat

"The prisoners, who appear to be well treated, were told through an interpreter that they were under no obligation to speak to Sky News." I would've burst in laughter if I hadn't woken up to the sounds of explosions today in Damascus."

"The official says Ahmed Shafiq flew out of Egypt at dawn Tuesday, just hours after the country's prosecutor general opened an investigation into allegations that he wasted public funds during his eight-year-term as a civil aviation minister under Mubarak." (thanks Basim)

An Syrian who wishes to remain anonymous sent me this: "In 2008 he was the Obama campaign's "Muslim Outreach Coordinator" but was forced to resign by right-wing bigots. So he was not good enough for getting out the vote but now he is lobbying Congress to arm people who they identified as "leaders of the revolution" on Skype and Facebook, after they saw videos on YouTube that convinced them armed force is the only way to resist the Assad government (not joking, see the article). If there was a lobby group to arm any other Arab uprising, there would be a federal grand jury convened to determine whether there was material support for terrorists. Whatever voice or influence Syrian Americans are able to get on this issue in the halls of power will be purely a function of U.S. foreign policy interests, and they will be shocked when the doors are shut in their face as soon as those interests shift. They are naive enough to think that their influence was not coincidental but rather the result of their hard work."

Angry Arab chief Bahrain correspondent wrote to me: "Apparently a dead Bahraini, killed and sometimes tortured by the regime is only worth $153,000. I believe that the department of transportation values a human life at $3 million plus."

Barry Obama really thinks that Arabs are idiot: he can ship arms to Bahrain and still pretend that he is friend of the Bahraini people. He can only fool his dumb Middle East advisers who convince him that he can do both.

The beauty of the situation in the Arab world now, regardless of the setbacks and the counter-revolution, is that it is in flux and will be in flux for years. The stagnation is gone, probably forever. This will open the door on new opportunities (and new conspiracies for sure).

Monday, June 25, 2012

"Over the course of the past three decades, the Palestinian refugees have been turned into Lebanon’s whipping boys. That was the case after the army launched its campaign against them in the Saida region after the exile of General Michel Aoun – those in charge at the time thought that would appease the dejected Christians. It was also the case in the insane campaign against Nahr al-Bared a few years ago, an abominable military assault launched under the banner of going after terrorists and criminals. The outcome, in both cases, was to subject the residents of the camps and their environs to further killing, persecution and displacement and to unending humiliation, in the name of security and the law. The Palestinian Authority has never stood by its people. It has always treated the refugees in the camps as second-class subjects, if not commodities to be bought and sold as part of the political game. It regularly tries to keep them quiet by dispensing cash to a few big shots, which is quickly spent on turf wars in the already ravaged alleyways. The “civilized” world, for its part, is only interested in dismantling the Palestinians’ social structures in the diaspora, as in historic Palestine."

Comic by Terry Furry, reproduced from "Heard the One About the Funny Leftist?" by Cris Thompson, East Bay Express

As'ad's Bio

As'ad AbuKhalil, born March 16, 1960. From Tyre, Lebanon, grew up in Beirut. Received his BA and MA from American University of Beirut in pol sc. Came to US in 1983 and received his PhD in comparative government from Georgetown University. Taught at Tufts University, Georgetown University, George Washington University, Colorado College, and Randolph-Macon Woman's College. Served as a Scholar-in-Residence at Middle East Institute in Washington DC. He served as free-lance Middle East consultant for NBC News and ABC News, an experience that only served to increase his disdain for maintream US media. He is now professor of political science at California State University, Stanislaus. His favorite food is fried eggplants.

The comments that appear in the comments' section are unedited and uncensored. The thoughtful and thoughtless, sane and insane, loving and hateful, wise and unwise ideas that they contain do not represent the Angry Arab. They only represent those who write them, whoever they are.